Observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK

The American Dialect Society will soon be voting on its Word of the Year for 2006. The WotY is a word that best captures the Zeitgeist of that year. (They/we [when I'm there] also vote for words in other categories, for example 'most likely to succeed', 'most unnecessary', etc.) The WotY is often a new word, but it doesn't have to be, so long as it fits the bill.

I'd like to propose a British Word of the Year vote. This is how it works:

You nominate a word (or expression) that you feel captures some particularly "2006" aspect of UK life. You can nominate via the comments for this entry, or by e-mail.

On/around 1 Jan 2007, I present a shortlist of nominations for your vote.

Or maybe Googleschaden since that connotes the grief rather than the joy.

BTW, my thanks to two lurking posters who only identify themselves in their direct approaches to me as kmoss and ncampbell and who ask about the pronunciation of my BWOTY-candidate 00. No, ladies, it's not /u:/ but /'ziɹəuziɹəu/.

Anyone can vote on the American WOTY, if they (a) join the American Dialect Society ($25 for students, $50 for others), and (b) go to their January meeting (this year in Anaheim, California 4-6 Jan). There is a vote--and campaigning!

I'd say that waterboard is more of an American WOTY candidate--but others are welcome to disagree.

Merriam-Webster has joined the WOTY game with an on-line survey, which declared truthiness the word of this year. This happened to be the American Dialect Society's word of last year. The fact that it was an on-line poll leaves open, of course, the possibility that there was a concerted effort by Stephen Colbert fans to stuff the ballot boxes.